Do we simply work to live? Is it a resource to spend on things we enjoy and people we love? It is a means to an end... or is it an end in and of itself? How we choose to see work will greatly impact the health of our souls.
Episode Notes:
Bob Black, 1985, The Abolition of Work | "No one should ever work. Work is the source of nearly all the misery in the world. Almost any evil you’d care to name comes from working or from living in a world designed for work. In order to stop suffering, we have to stop working."
Genesis 1:28 (NIV) | God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
We are given an invitation to have dominion & reign.
Genesis 1:29-31 (NIV) | Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
Genesis 2:15 (NIV) | The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Work becomes cursed, toil and hardship are introduced.
Genesis 3:17-19 (NIV) | To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
Work becomes an identity, we find ourselves validated based on what we do.
Genesis 4:2-5 (NIV) | Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
Rest is re-introduced to show that we are deeply loved and valued apart from our work.
Exodus 20:8-11 (NIV) | Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
How we are left to see the philosophy of work from a biblical perspective:
Work is a gift from God.
Work is for others as much as for self.
God equips those for work.
Steve Harvey - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x3rEg2qvcQ
BEMA - https://www.bemadiscipleship.com/
Music - Hyrule by Theevs
